Genesis 46:4

I am He who in My Word will go down with thee into Mizraim; I will regard the affliction of thy children, and My Word shall bring thee up from thence, and cause thy children to come up; but Joseph shall lay his hand upon thine eyes.

אעלך גם עלה, G’d meant that He would both descend with Yaakov to Egypt and also return with him to the Holy Land. The single expression גם serving as preposition for two activities, also occurs in Exodus 12,32 וברכתם גם אותי, when Pharaoh asked Moses to bless him as well as the Jewish people when they would offer sacrifices to their G’d.

ישית ידו על עיניך, the word עיניך does not mean “your eyes,” but “your affairs, your needs.” Joseph will look after all of Yaakov’s needs during the years remaining to him in Egypt The expression occurs in Job 9,33.

אעלך גם עלה. Not only will I bring you out of Egypt (in a coffin) to be buried in the Holy Land, but I will also bring your numerous descendants out of there to a good land flowing with milk and honey (the land of Cannan) as we know from G’d’s promise to Moses in Exodus 3,8.

ישית ידך על עיניך, you yourself will not have to worry about any of your affairs while in Egypt, seeing that Joseph will take care of all the mundane matters pertaining to daily life. In other words, you can keep your eyes closed when it comes to mundane matters.

אנכי ארד עמך, the meaning of these words is that you will not suffer a mishap on the way to Egypt.

ואנכי אעלך, as we explained already on the preceding verse. Another possible explanation: the words refer to the person of Yaakov himself, G’d promising that He would be with him on his way to burial in the land of Canaan. The reason G’d added the words: גם עלה would then be a reference to his children who would carry him from Egypt to Canaan to be buried there.

ויוסף ישית ידו על עיניך, we see that this promise was fulfilled in 50,1 when the Torah reports ויפול יוסף על פני אביו, “that Joseph fell on the face of his father.” The promise mentioned here included the fact that after Yaakov’s death Joseph would look after the economic requirements of the brothers and their families. [presumably based on Yaakov’s knowledge that the famine would start again after his death. Ed.]

אנכי ארד עמך מצרימה, ואנכי אעלך גם עלה, “I (G–d speaking) will go down with you to Egypt, and I will also go back up with you (for you to be buried in the land of Canaan).” The wording when examined closely, implies that whereas G–d personally will accompany him on the way down to Egypt, an agent of His will supervise the return to the land of Canaan of his body when the time came. Proof for this interpretation is the fact that although 70 of his descendants have been mentioned as coming to Egypt, only sixty nine names have been listed, i.e. G–d Himself is considered as making up the seventieth. (Compare Deuteronomy 10,22) When the Israelites eventually would leave Egypt there was also one missing to make up the number 600000, this ‘one’ being G–d.” [This is why no precise number was quoted in Exodus 12,37 for the number of males that left Egypt, although on several counts in the desert, each time a precise number of the adult males is given. Ed.] Another interpretation: the words: אנכי אעלך גם עלה, are a correction by G–d for what Yaakov had thought of as a “descent” to Egypt. G–d tells him that far from being a “descent,” it will be seen as an ascent, by the time his descendants will leave Egypt.